The Gloss is controlled in the SPEC MAP ALPHA LAYER, the Whiter the color the glossier it is. But depending on the picture you're talking about RealFlight is limited on the "realness" looking of the gloss. So increase the value of the color of the part you want to make shinner in the alpha layer. The alpha layer is 8 bit color so the HEX value of any color can be from $000000 to $FFFFFF. So that's really 00 to FF for the Red, Green, and Blue colors.Looks real Good ... most cases, if it looks just good to you, it looks GREAT to me.
I do have a question for you. I was trying to make the painted areas on the USAF CS just a bit shiny as in the picture, but I'm coming up short. Tried _n and _s files of clear, black, white with both the Nomand naming and USAF naming plus changing the reflectivity factor in the Nomad colorschemes file ... but no effect. I'm missing something that's for sure. Need to know what ??????
All the tga files are in the plane's directory or color scheme directory and use the same "base" name but the SPEC MAP ends with "_s.tga" and the NORMAL MAP ends with "_n.tga". Do you know how to use the ALPHA LAYER? Both the color scheme XX.tga and the spec map XX_s.tga have an ALPHA LAYER but "only" the ALPHA LAYER in the SPEC MAP (XX_s.tga) will change the GLOSS. I think there's a thread on the forum that talks about them but I don't know where it is but if I find it I'll post a link for you, but maybe one of the other guys knows where it is?Technoid ... thanks for the info ... I'm thinking the spec map is the _s.tga file, but where does it reside and does it have the same name as the CS file? I tried pure white for the whole file, but nothing changed. I did this before, but I sure have a mental block today! Is there a good source for an explanation of the use of the _N and _S files. Have searched but not found.
There should be two layers in the _s.tga file, the RGB layer which controls the strength of the color and the ALPHA layer which controls the gloss. Were did you get the _s.tga file you're talking about? From my beta?I may have been expecting too much. I tried pure white to black, green, red, purple .... if I squint real hard and use my imagination, I believe there is a slight shine. But it sure doesn't appear to be a 6 coat hand rubbed lacquer finish as seen on show cars. Nothing that even stands out that would suggest the work involved .... unless I've missed dealing with Mr. ALPHA Layer. In the _s.tga file there is only one layer, starts out somewhat see-thru and I color the items of interest ... nothing really changes that much.
I loaded a number of "stock" planes, and none shined, so I'm thinking that it is what it is ... RF or tga limited, or I'm the only one that likes shiny things such as show cars and clear coated gold leaf (24k).
Thanks for reminding me of the correct terminology for the alpha channel I usually say alpha layer because that's what the guy called it that taught me how to use the alpha channel. But that definitely could confuse someone.Technoid check your PM
@PilotAt6 When I talked about using the "ALPHA LAYER" to control the gloss in the SPEC MAP I should have used "ALPHA CHANNEL" because that's the correct terminology for it. So when I said "ALPHA LAYER" I really meant "ALPHA CHANNEL". Did the youtube video you mentioned clear that up for you? Sorry about using the wrong name I can see where that could cause confusion.There should be two layers in the _s.tga file, the RGB layer which controls the strength of the color and the ALPHA layer which controls the gloss. Were did you get the _s.tga file you're talking about? From my beta?
Are you working on the TGA files in the planes directory under CustomModels? Or did you save a color scheme and working on them in the ColorSchemes directory? But yeah it's hard to get a super gloss color, you can get it pretty glossy if it's a silver color.
I don't know what terminology Paint Shop Pro uses they might "not" call it the Alpha Channel it could easily be called a mask because technically in programming that's the way it would be used, a mask that defines "per pixel" what operation to do on the image. (like transparency in the normal tga or gloss in the s_tga) So if you can edit the "mask" and it looks like the spec map in my _s.tga then try making one side of the fuselage "all white" and see if it makes that side glossy. But be sure to save both the normal tga and spec map tga as 32 bits so the alpha channel will be saved. A 24 bit tga can't have an alpha channel or mask paint shop pro might call it.What I did was re-download your beta and overwrote the files then used the _s.tga file in that directory and the original CS to play with. The directory is Custom Models sub folder TA-28D-5 Nomad.
When I open the _s.tga file, only one layer is present. I'm using Corel Paintshop Pro. I have an option for opening a "Mask" from the "ALPHA" channel , if I open that , the display shows a "Group" with two layers listed in it. The mask layer shows blank when selected but the layer icon looks like the "spec map Alpha.jpg" that asj posted. I don't see anything listing channels ....
I'll need to investigate further and/or try using the "gimp".
Thanks
Thanks I'm glad you like it. Yes all the lines you see are done in the normal map (_n.tga).Technoid ... thanks for the info on the panel lines. Your results look good. One thing I like is the cowling seems to have recessed lines forming panels. Is that done in the _n.tga file or another technique.
Still learning after all these years ... !